Team Cat-Raptor
by Christopher Kamori
Summary: A reformed argonian thief who goes by the alias Dragon Rouge teams up with a dunmer (dark elf) who was transformed into a sabertooth cat. The two of them adventure across Skyrim as bounty hunters, all while trying to accomplish their personal agendas. This story is rated T for violence, mild language, alcohol, and some mild adult themes.


_**Team Cat-Raptor**_

**Hey guys. This short story is sort of an introduction to a future Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fan fiction I plan to write about the adventures of two bounty hunters. I was inspired by the "Amris and Ardea - Sabrecat Followers" mod by Morrodes in the Steam Workshop, so a special thanks to him. No promises as to when I'll actually start it, if I start it. If you want me to make a series out of this, please let me know in the comments down below, and enjoy. For now, consider this like the introduction, and then the next chapter will be where the story starts. This is not just a preview or a trailer. Just think of it like the first episode of Full Metal Alchemist, where it introduces the characters even though it has very little to do with the rest of the plot.**

**The following is a non-profit, fan based fiction. I in no way own anything that is related to Bethesda Studios. Only my original characters and content are mine. Please support the official franchise.**

(Swindler's Den)

Near the entrance of the cave enters a muscular but agile argonian, with ebony scales, a red throat and laugh lines, golden, narrow eyes, and two horns jetted out of the back of his head, giving him a dragon-like appearance. He's adorned with a red hood that comes down his left shoulder like a cape. And he wears normal, white clothes like many town guards would wear under their armor, only in this person's case, he does the opposite, and keeps scaled armor underneath, a deceit that would fool many into thinking him less protected. To match it, he has scaled braces and boots worn in a less concealed manor. But it is at his boots where we find this lizard's most noticeable trait. For out of the front extends four claws, the inner big toes of which possess large, curved claws. He is crouched, sneaking inside to not alert the bandits posted further down on guard. Hiding in the shadows, he slowly creeps along the damp, cavern walls as he listens to a conversation between these bandits, analyzing them to determine which one he should kill first.

"Been three weeks now since I last killed. I'm starting to get that itch to kill," said a fat orc in imperial heavy armor with a mace by his side.

"Quit your complaining big guy. Some poor trader or caravan's bound to pass by soon enough. Then we'll let you have your fun," replied a wood elf woman.

"Hopefully the next hit will be a mead shipment. We're running low in the storage," a scrawny, drunk imperial added.

"We still have two barrels left," the she-elf said back.

"Can never have enough drink, now can we?" he laughed before letting out a small hiccup.

"You two are pathetic," the orc said to his two companions.

"Yeah well- *hiccup* maybe you're just too sober," the imperial said.

"I'm cutting you off Tate. Back at the stronghold, we did hard labor and battle all day to earn a single drink. Yet you down bottles like a spoiled child," said the orc.

"Come on man. A man's got to have his drink. *hiccup* Heh heh heh-"

Suddenly, the imperial was stabbed in the back, with the black argonian rising up from behind him. "You know, at least I agreed with the last thing he said."

The she-elf and orc stood up, raising their weapons. "Hey! What do you think you're doing here?" The she-elf asked angrily, point her bow towards him.

"Don't mind me. Just passing through. Say, you guys wouldn't happen to know where I could find a certain Karlef the... Marauder would you?" he asked cockily, looking at a bounty note he had for said person.

"As if you'll live to get to him," she said before firing her arrow.

The argonian saw it coming, and did a roll to the side, evading the shot.

"You want to kill, then go kill you stupid orc," she ordered her ally.

The orc charged head first, letting out his battle cry. He swung with his mace, missing the lizard, then swinging again, only to get it stuck in the side of a rock. The cunning argonian used this brief moment to cut the orc's throat and shove him to the ground.

Seeing another arrow about to be fired at him, he leaped with incredible agility into the air, coming down on the she-elf with his clawed feet before she could have time to react. When he landed on her, her head hit the hard ground, knocking her out.

"Well that was easy," the argonian said with a slight laugh. "Now let's see what we've got here... ooh nice!" he said checking through each of their coin purses that he added to his own.

The argonian continued down through the den, assassinating or knocking out every ruffian he crossed, never once leaving the shadows. Besides looting his victims bodies, he also took from the chests and crates these plunderers had stolen from now dead traders.

At the end of the cave was a somewhat large, open area with a man in full steel armor standing over an alchemy table. He was mixing several mushrooms together to craft a health potion when he noticed something was off. He didn't hear the normal merry, drunk singing of his fellow criminals echoing, and the air had a slightly disgusting draft blowing through, carrying what he thought was blood. He immediately stopped what he was doing and went to reach for his axe. Only where his hands would normally grasp a hilt, he caught only air. He scratched his head in confusion to find that his horned helmet he had been wearing minutes ago was also gone. Out of panic, he grabbed a torch off the wall, and began lighting up the shadowy areas to find his missing gear. Then, a slight glimmer of his axe head shined, with the red hooded argonian waiting beside it.

"This blade's not bad. Kept it sharp, custom engravings, I'd say this is at least worth a good 100 septums. But that's nothing compared to your bounty," the argonian spoke, holding out the bandit chief's wanted poster.

"I take it you're one of those bounty hunters," the bandit said with less fear in his voice. "So what do they say about me? Go on, read my bounty."

"Okay, let's see here... Karlef the Strong: wanted in Whiterun for 14 cases of assault, 9 murders, 21 reports of theft... Heh, 21? Please, that's nothing."

"What? You've done more?" the chief asked, feeling mocked.

"Just the thieving part, but that's not important," the argonian replied. "So are you going to come quietly, or do we have to do the stupid fight thing? Because you guys always seem to chose the later."

"Sorry lizard. But I don't care for the bounty hunter types. And for what you did to the rest of my men, I think I'll wear your skin as a belt," the chief said as he pulled out a battle axe.

"Not an original threat, but okay," the argonian said as he threw aside the axe, raising his fists removing his red hood.

Since the bandit had been disarmed, he would have to fight this fight bare handed. Him and his argonian opponent rushed towards each other, delivering swift blows to the other. But due to the bandit's higher physical strength, as well as his armored fists, he seemed to injure the bounty hunter more. But the argonian was quick, and struck back several more times. When the bandit charged in for another blow, his fist was caught by a grapple. The argonian's naturally longer claws pinched into the exposed flesh of the bandit's hands, trying to make his opponent pull back. But in the bandit's defense, he raised back his head and slammed it into the reptilian face, throwing him to the ground.

The bandit grew tired very quickly of this hand-to-hand combat, and took a few steps back towards a pile of loot he had collected. Reaching behind his back, to a table with assorted items displayed, he pulled out a small crossbow, cocked and ready to fire. The argonian reacted to this by running away with a rapid burst of speed. He ran around the room, jumping up and across the rocks to dodge the crossbow bolts as they fired towards him. This continued until one bolt finally made its mark inside the argonian's upper right arm, causing him to tense up and trip.

"Ow! Dammit, that's my sword arm. I sell that you know!" the argonian exclaimed.

The bandit fired another bolt into his gut, causing him to yell out even more. "Relax scale head. They won't be needing your services much longer," the marauder threatened as he threw down his crossbow, and retrieved his axe.

The argonian began crawling away, moving closer to the cave wall until he was pushed up against some mead barrels.

"Time to end this little game," the bandit said with a small breath of fatigue.

"Wait! Before you do this, could you grant a fellow rouge one last request?" the argonian asked with silver on his tongue.

"Not like you can get out of this, but what do you want?" the chief answered with a slight sigh of impatience.

"Could I... have one last drink. I do think this is...*cough* my brand of ale," the argonian gestured, looking at the nozzle of the barrel he was pressed against.

"Go ahead. I'll enjoy gutting it out with the rest of you, once I'm done," the chief boasted.

The foolish bandit didn't realize what his argonian opponent was trying to do. For as the lizard drank from the barrel, he took his time, savoring each sip to stall out just as long, until he saw that his target would no longer wait.

In the distant, cavernous shadows behind the bandit, the argonian saw two reddish-gold eyes glaring the opponent, as a large figure said eyes belonged to stepped out slowly.

"Well thanks for the drink. So again, are you going to come quietly or not?" the argonian asked with a wide smile on his face.

"Fool. I will mount your skull on a pike outside when this is all through," the bandit laughed, preparing to strike.

"Yeah, how about no," the large figure behind the bandit spoke.

The chief turned around, only to be surprised by a formidable looking sabertooth tiger as it lunged for him, pinning him to the ground. He struggled, but the beast tore into his arms and legs, leaving deep scratch wounds all across his body. The sabertooth pressed down with its paw on the neck, choking the bandit until he passed out. The large cat then let off his prey, moving towards the injured argonian.

The sabertooth had many noticeable features, primarily what he was covered with. He had leather armor that had been hand fashioned, strapped around his torso and lower legs. And on each side of him was some bags for carrying things, almost making him resemble beasts of labor. Inside said bags, as well as tied around his back were several bags of gold and gems, fur clothes the bandits from earlier had worn, and a few elven and orcish weapons. His fur radiated slight warmth, with occasional embers sparking out as if he were a pinewood bonfire. And he walked with a small grace and pride, like nobles in the jarls' courts.

"I thought I said to wait out front," the argonian said, pulling the bolt out of his arm and using a healing spell to fix the wound.

"And I thought you said you could handle this by yourself," the cat retorted.

"Well..." The argonian had nothing to say back.

"Shouldn't you pull that other one out of your gut? It looks like it'd hurt," the sabertooth said out of concern.

"Relax. Stupid crossbow couldn't even penetrate my armor," he said quickly dislodging the bolt.

"So what was your plan if I didn't come?" the sabertooth asked, trying to make his friend aware of his recklessness.

"Same thing, only I would have waited for him to be caught off guard and rush him with my dagger. You know, the classic fake out routine," said confidently.

"Please. As if you could pull that off," the sabertooth mocked.

"No I wouldn't have," the argonian returned. "Thanks."

The two of them heard the bandit twitching, still to weak to get back up.

"Come on, let's get this guy stripped and tied up so we can collect our pay, and have a good night at the Bannered Mare," the sabertooth said.

The two of them removed the heavy steel armor and weapons from the bandit, leaving him only in rags, and bound him with some leather strips. The argonian threw him over the sabertooth's back, a factor in bounty hunting he subconsciously disliked, and exited the Swindler's den, heading east for Whiterun.

**So that's just a small taste of ****_Team Cat-Raptor_**** that I plan to write in the future. For now, it's just a little short story, but I will continue on from here if enough people like it. If you want to read more of this, please leave a comment down below, and if I get enough people asking for it, I'll do it.**

**This story was both inspired by the "Amris and Ardea - Sabrecat Followers" mod by Morrodes and through my most recent play through in Skyrim. Note, I've already sought and received permission from the author of the mod to use Amris in my story, so I'm not stealing him. I'm just adding a bit of lore to an already great mod. So again, if you want to see this turned into a series, please let me know in the comments bellow. Also, if you want to leave a review, I'd ask that you don't leave anything rude or negative please. Thank you.**


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